U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,676,343 and 4,792,018, commonly-assigned herewith, set forth systems for operator-unattended checkout with particular concern for detection of customer fraud and deterrence of the same.
In the '343 patent, an article selected for purchase has its universal product code (UPC) scanned by a code reader and the code reader output signals effect the fetching from storage of a signal indicative of a measurable characteristic of the article. The article is placed on a conveyor and led thereby into a security zone defined by inlet and outlet light curtains. In the security zone, the measurable characteristic of the selected article is measured by a sensor and the sensor provides an output signal indicative of the measurement. A comparison is made of the sensor output signal and the fetched signal and, if the comparison is favorable, the conveyor continues to move in an article acceptance sense. Should the comparison be negative, the movement of the conveyor is reversed and the article placed on the conveyor is returned to the customer.
While the commonly-assigned patents describe their systems as operator-unattended, practical implementation thereof has led to a re-characterization thereof as systems requiring limited operator assistance, vastly less than the conventional, fully operator-attended systems theretofore known. Typically, an employee is assigned to a prescribed number of checkout counters and floats therebetween as assistance is required.
In typical current implementations of checkout systems in accordance with the commonly-assigned patents, on completion of the activity of the security system, indication is provided by the security system to a POS (point of sale) system of the installation of the acceptance of a given UPC-scanned article selected for purchase. The indication is conveyed to an interface which mates the security and POS systems. The POS system includes a store of article prices correlated with UPC indications and is responsive to the acceptance indication and the UPC indication for a given article to fetch the stored price of the article and to proceed with price totalization for a consumer order, seriatim per selected and accepted article.
One basis for the need for some operator assistance derives from the failure, at times, of the POS system price store to have pricing data for a selected article. In currently implemented systems, the POS system advises the security system, through the interface, of this aberration and the selected article is rejected.
Heightened operator assistance attends the described situation, since all article rejections for failure of price information require an operator to assist in the checkout. In the described situation, the operator is required to determine the selected article price and to furnish the price by key input to the POS system.
A system and method for averting need for continued operator assistance for price input in installations following the '343 and '018 patents is set forth in a commonly-assigned, copending application, entitled "ARTICLE CHECKOUT SYSTEM WITH PRICE PARAMETER OVERRIDE CAPACITY".
Another basis for the need for some operator assistance derives from article supplier activity not keyed into the security data base by the manager of the facility using the system, typically a food market supermarket. By way of example, in a promotional effort for a given article, a further article may be affixed thereto as an award for purchase of the article. This gives rise to a size characteristic which compares negatively with the stored size characteristic for the article absent its companion.
Heightened operator assistance attends the described situation, since all article rejections by the checkout system require an operator to assist in the checkout, e.g., as in bypassing the system for the rejected article. While the above example is a size discrepancy, article suppliers will at times change the weight aspect of an article, e.g., by changing a container from plastic to glass or vice versa. Weight discrepancy likewise gives rise to article rejection and need for operator assistance.
A system and method for averting need for continued operator assistance for size or weight input in installations following the '343 and '018 patents is set forth in a commonly-assigned, copending application, entitled "ARTICLE CHECKOUT SYSTEM WITH SECURITY PARAMETER OVERRIDE CAPACITY".
In conventional article checkout, a cashier scans the articles for about one-half of the order checkout time and does tendering (payment acceptance) and finalizing operations for the other one-half or so of the order checkout time. In the operator-unattended checkout system, the customer does the article scanning and is less efficient than the cashier. However, since tendering occurs remotely from the checkout station, at a paystation, the time to perform checkout in the operator-unattended system can equate with the operator-attended system. In either variety of checkout system, if there can be an increase in the usable time of the article code scanner, throughput can be increased accordingly.